PRAISE HIM
Key Verse: “God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” (v.5)
Key Theme: God is King so praise Him as such.
Key Descriptives of God: Lord Most High; King of all the earth;
In our reading today, it is all made simple again. God is seen in His sovereignty, He is magnified and praised— and all is well. In this short Psalm, 8 times the word GOD will be used, 4 times HE will be used, 3 times KING, and 1 time LORD MOST HIGH. The Psalmist doesn’t speak of himself nor does He speak of the enemy— this is a chapter to just look at God and praise Him. He is specifically being looked at and praised for His sovereignty over earth and the nations. In verse 2 He is “Lord Most High” and “King over all the earth”. In verse 7, He is again “King of all the earth”, in verse 8, “God reigns over the nations” and then finally in verse 9, “all the kings of the earth belong to God.” “Most High” always means absolute sovereignty. King “over” all the earth and King “of” all the earth is also a thorough rulership. Then he reestablishes that God is “over the nations” and that even all the nations “kings” (Presidents, Prime Ministers etc.etc.) BELONG to Him. This is a thorough and total Lordship.
ORPHAN-MINDED PRAYERS?
At times our particular stream in the Body of Christ has extracted way too much from Ps. 115:16 (“The heavens belong to the earth but the earth He has given to the sons of men”) and in doing so diminished HIS absolute authority and power on earth. That verse has been so improperly stretched as to make us virtual Deists with a God way up there in His sphere of authority and us down here with our sphere of authority. The “given to the sons of men” was not about giving us absolute authority but about giving us inheritance. In that is a level of delegated authority but He is still the on-the-job Sovereign. Reading Psalm 47 alone should reset us on whose realm of authority the earth and its nations are. If we are going to be seeing things rightly in 2020 we had better get this part of the equation right. Orphan-minded (“I need to rescue myself”) panic follows if we don’t. A prayer movement can be generated and sustained through orphan-mindedness but it will always be less effective than the confident prayers of those who see Him in His “King of the earth” reality. It is “the prayer of faith” and not “the prayer of panic or fear” that is powerful to change things. In the first, your focus is on Him, in the second your focus is on you. Again, “What you think about God is the most important thing about YOU.”
MORE PRAISE LESS PRAYER?
Following this line of thinking, once you have a better God-view on who He is on earth and among the nations, the more you will PRAISE Him. I firmly believe we have way too much emphasis on praying versus praising. Notice that David “the man after God’s heart” is a praiser. His prayers are usually praise and if they don’t start there it is always where he ends. What powerful intercession really is, is bringing praise to God on a specific “battlefield”. I don’t think that the 2 Chron. 20 story of the praisers leading the way to a battlefield victory for Jehoshaphat was an anomaly. Rather it was THE KEY for all battles. When God is not big enough in the equation we spend more time “casting down” itemized darkness rather than praising Him.
SECOND HEAVEN VS. THIRD HEAVEN
We can get too sophisticated with darkness. You can put 50 “high level” intercessors into a dark room each having a nuanced assignment of what specific darkness to rebuke or you can have a 7-year old child enter that room and flip the lights on. Praise flips the lights on. Focusing on the darkness accesses the “second heaven” (essentially the enemies’ camp) and focusing on HIM accesses the “third heaven” (God’s camp). Our overabundance of scary dreams and revelations come from too much “second heaven” attention and interaction. Knowing what the enemy is planning to do is best discovered from the “third heaven” which gives the objective eagle’s-eye view of a scenario. “Third heaven” purview also always sees what God is already doing about the enemies’ agenda and in its’ declaration is the great “power of prayer”. The ten spies were “second heaven” experts. Caleb from the tribe of Judah (“praise”) was a “third heaven” expert. THEY found the sons of Anak, HE found the oversized grapes and the milk and honey. Their “revelations” on the enemy scared the people to death to the point Caleb’s “third heaven” perspective couldn’t even be heard. That is tragically happening over and over in our day and it has been costing us greatly. It is why I have an assignment to cast down “ten spies” reports. It is not just a “let’s agree to disagree” matter, it literally is a matter of life and death. ALL the prophets do not need to be listened to— only the ones that can see God in the equation. Are the present and upcoming challenges, going into the election, “sons of Anak giants” or are they “bread for us”? 10 unanointed seer prophets and 1 anointed seer prophet looked at the same thing and saw two different realities. Who was right? Were they giants or were they bread? Were they impossible, impassable obstacles or alimentary incidentals? The 10 spies were more factually correct. Caleb was more spiritually correct. Caleb knew and maintained the God-narrative, the ten spies totally lost it. It did not matter that eventually, the people discovered that there were in fact “sons of Anak”- thus “validating” the 10 spies revelation. They were now long dead, and actually an 85-year old Caleb took care of them by himself. Are masks, riots, a plandemic, and even bigger potential enemy threats really the story of 2020? Does it really matter if more trouble is enemy-planned for later in 2020? What is the God-narrative? Read my new book, “The End of the World As We Know it” for a lot of that. Listen to scary dreams to grow your expertise on the “sons of Anak”. One will make you praise more, one will make you “pray” more. You choose.
GOD…WITH THE SOUND OF THE (TRUMP)ET
“God has gone up WITH a shout, the Lord WITH the sound of a trumpet.” (v.5) Notice what God accompanies onto the battlefield. Add verse 1, “O clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with a voice of triumph!” God subdues our enemies (demonic-not flesh and blood) and gives inheritance (v.3 and 4) with a far less sophisticated “spiritual warfare” strategy than we are prone to embrace. Out loud, demonstrative, body-moving, hand-clapping, shouting, voices of triumph who know the God-narrative. Back on March 6, 2016, when I saw the (shocking for me) vision of Donald Trump winning the presidency of the USA he was on a TRIUMPH motorcycle and making a lot of noise with it. He also had a red, white, and blue bandanna on. The Lord then spoke to me more from this Psalm 47 as He emphasized this verse. “I will go up with the sound of the TRUMP.” The trumpets of that day were of course ram’s horn shofars. A trumpet/Trump doesn’t self-actualize. A trumpet/Trump player does that. Nothing about today’s God-narrative depends totally on President Trump. God is the Trump player. When you are a little too orphan-minded, praying for the Trump is the key. When you correctly see the battlefield praising the Trump Player becomes the greater focus. Yes, of course, the enemy wants to take out President Trump and has tried so multiple times. But I don’t think “He who began a good work…” now expects US to make sure it is ultimately completed. Maybe instead of “praying” some things through, let’s praise some things through. That is why God is so on the Sean Feucht praise “on the battlefields” gatherings and what we all need to tap into more. God’s ready to show up and show off even more but is just looking for some accompaniment music/praise/worship to go WITH. This is my 2 Chron. 20:20 word to you.
Written by: Johnny Enlow
Featured Image by chris ganser on Unsplash
67 DAY COUNTDOWN SERIES
You can find all of the posts in this series by clicking the button below.
The 67 Day Countdown Series is brought to you by Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow, founders of Restore7 ministry, as well as international speakers and best-selling authors. Among Johnny’s books are The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, Rainbow God, The Seven Mountain Renaissance, Becoming A Superhero, and RISE. Elizabeth serves as CEO and penned Rainbow God: The Seven Colors of Love and God in Every Season.
